


Reliance

by Capucine



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Head Injury, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Protectiveness, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Survival, after the finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-10 15:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7851484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capucine/pseuds/Capucine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiro and Keith are trapped on a planet with no way to contact the others after being thrown out of a wormhole.</p>
<p>And with both of them injured, and without much to go on, Shiro will need to tap into his survival instinct once again.</p>
<p>(Spoilers for the finale and anything prior)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first Voltron fic, but I kinda became obsessed overnight. :P Hope you enjoy it!

Shiro felt ill, there was no doubt about that. His side stung when he didn’t move, and when he did—agony.

The thing was, of course, was that he knew how to deal with that. He had for a long time. He kind of disconnected a little from the pain, or changed it into a bearable thing. He’d had to—he could push through it pretty well.

Pain was an obstacle to him now, rather than something that would absolutely stop him in his tracks.

Pain wasn’t terrifying—lack of control over the pain was. He could take pain. He couldn’t take people attacking him that he couldn’t defend against quite as well.

And he knew Keith was not quite the same, in that sense.

He’d seen the red lion go down on the same planet, close enough to see, which he considered a mercy. On a planet, he could have gone anywhere—might have even missed the planet itself.

Shiro didn’t know where Pidge or Lance or Hunk were, nor even Allura and Coran, but he did have an idea where Keith was, so he worked towards that. 

Communications were nonexistent. He’d tried reaching Keith, only to get what he would term as this tech’s version of static. It wasn’t like on earth, not quite so grating, but definitely not what he wanted to hear.

Keith was a good kid. He hoped he was all right.

As it was, though, he kept his focus sharply on finding him and surviving, and off of worrying.

It was a long trek, though the planet didn’t strictly seem to be hostile. He’d definitely seen more hostile, though he kept on his guard; it wasn’t like the planet he and Pidge found the green lion on.

She had better be okay. Or, he hoped she was.

Pidge was resourceful, no doubt about that, but she and the others could be anywhere. And there wasn’t much of a solution to a lack of an oxygen source.

Shiro shut that line of thought off. He had to focus on Keith.

The planet was thick with vines, but also rather dry. The texture was like limp spaghetti, but somehow before it was cooked. They seemed to be draped over a lot of rocks, tiny roots of some kind attached to said rocks. It made them a little bit sturdy for climbing, if one didn’t put too much weight on a single one.

The air was dry too, which Shiro supposed was far better than sweltering heat. At least he wouldn’t be sweating out all his water within the hour.

And Keith hopefully wouldn’t be either.

It took about four hours to get to the crash site. Shiro had managed to make it, and he figured he probably would have made it faster if it weren’t for his injury.

The red lion was on its side. It had made crumbled chunks out of part of one of the rocks, the vines torn in its wake. Shiro carefully edged towards it, looking for signs of Keith.

He finally spotted him.

Keith was lying where he must have crawled out, still, very much too still, and his dark hair seemed to have a darker spot.

Shiro swallowed the panic swiftly and made his way to Keith’s side. He carefully turned him over, and discovered he was alive, breathing. His chest rose and fell, and his skin was clammy, so pale and with a fine sheen of sweat. His eyes opened partway, trying to look at Shiro and failing.

“It’s okay, buddy, I got you,” Shiro assured him, getting a look at his head.

He’d clearly hit it, and hit it hard. There was blood matted in his hair, and Shiro was extremely grateful he hadn’t bled out in the time it took to get there. He wasn’t bleeding anymore.

Shiro took in their surroundings, and as much as he wanted to go back to his lion, try again to get it to start, he realized their best option was to stay with the red lion for now. It would provide shelter and was considerably closer than the black lion.

He gathered Keith up carefully, and moved inside the red lion. Just in the opening of the hatch.

Then he took a careful catalogue of Keith’s injuries.

Mostly, it seemed to be his head injury. He likely had a concussion, and a very bad one at that. Some small scrapes, but nothing else that would leave Shiro terrified for Keith’s life.

As it was, he tried to gently rouse him, because sleeping with a head injury was very bad.

“Hey, Keith? Come on, you’re okay. Look at me. Look at my nose, okay? That’s easy, there you go…”

Keith’s eyes were hazily focused on his nose or the general area of his nose. Somewhere near his face, anyway. He let out a small moan sound that had clearly been meant to be words.

“You’re okay, buddy,” Shiro consoled him, brushing some of the dirt from his face. “You’re okay.”

As Keith’s eyes started to droop shut again, Shiro was pretty sure this was going to be a long night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro tries to set things up for survival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe a slow chapter. :P Sorry.

Shiro hoped this planet didn’t have rain. Or, that at least any rain it would have would be harmless. Because if it rained and Keith got cold, he was a bit scared that it would kill him.

Keith’s skin, as it was, was chilly to the touch. Pale, and he really didn’t like that.

“Keith, talk to me,” he commanded again, trying to keep the red paladin awake. 

Keith’s eyes flickered a little, and he murmured something about space. Last time, Shiro was pretty sure it was about his cabin. Another time was about the Galra. Keith was telling him a lot of facts he’d absorbed.

It didn’t really matter what he was talking about, so long as he was talking.

They had some rations, which Shiro was grateful for. If they couldn’t get the red lion to fly, making the trip back to the black lion would at least give them more rations. Shiro hadn’t grabbed all of it, for sure.

“It rains acid on Venus,” Keith told him, words a little slurred and quiet.

It was like he was following the command, but unable to do more than comply. Unable to really think that thoroughly on what was happening.

And that was worrying, but not as worrying as total lack of consciousness. Keith would be okay, Shiro assured himself—if he did everything necessary to keep him alive.

“That’s good. Good thing we’re not on Venus,” Shiro replied, getting back to work on getting the heat unit working. It was colder than he would have liked—not for his sake, he could handle that, but for Keith’s. He knew being cold would sap his strength.

As the heat unit continued to resist him, he could hear Keith tell him about Mars, and Pluto, and so on and so forth. The ‘local’ planets back home. He knew a lot about them, after all.

Shiro asked him, “Can you tell me about Jupiter?”

“It has a red dot that’s a hurricane. The hurricane has changed in size over time. It’s currently bigger than Earth.”

His lips were whiteish. That really didn’t sit well with Shiro.

If he could only keep him warm, he knew he could keep him alive. That was something he was confident enough of. So, he did the only thing he could think of—he stripped.

He took off his upper armor, the upper bit of cloth, and oh so carefully got Keith into it. It was like putting it on a floppy doll.

He shivered, already feeling some cold, but he’d get the heat unit going soon, he was sure. He could do it, though he wished either Hunk or Pidge were here. They would understand it better, and he felt like they might already have it going.

Keith mumbled a little again, and Shiro encouraged it. “Keep talking to me. It’s okay.”

“I have a jacket,” Keith mumbled, “I left it home.”

“On Earth?” Shiro asked.

Keith’s brow crumpled in confusion. “No, uh…the one. The castle.”

And Shiro felt a weird lurch in his heart. Just a little one, but he guessed he’d known that Keith had no one back on Earth. It was one reason he was so attached to all of them, Shiro figured.

Then the thing crackled to life, and a small glow of heat filled the space.

Shiro let out a breath, not quite having been holding it, but relieved all the same. He shuffled back over, next to Keith, and readjusted him, checking his head again.

Just let him breathe, Shiro thought to himself. Let him survive this.

He didn’t know who he was asking, but it was something he’d done once or twice, or perhaps a lot, when he didn’t have the power to move. When he didn’t have the ability to change what was happening.

And that was bringing slow memories, painful jabs in his chest, and he could feel a sweat breaking out on his skin. His skin felt too warm, but he had to breathe through it, there was no time for this. He swallowed, swallowed again, and turned back to Keith.

He came up close, intending to share his heat. Keith’s hand suddenly flailed a little, and, maybe not to Shiro’s astonishment, he gripped the side of his pants. Only after sliding down his arm and finding nothing to grip, though.

Shiro wrapped his hand over Keith’s, rubbing the fingers comfortingly. “You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

“Yeah…I know,” Keith managed, fingers tightening their grip.

Shiro doubted that Keith was going to let go any time soon.

That was okay. That was far better than being unresponsive. And, if Shiro was being honest, it made him feel like there was some feeble control over Keith and his injury and his survival.

He laid back against the wall, and felt the papery warmth of Keith’s gloves in his hand.

They’d make it. They had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My experience with head injuries is...semi helpful here. 
> 
> Hope this was okay.

**Author's Note:**

> I like hurting characters I love, so...yeah. This will have a continuation.


End file.
